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A principal and an athletic director are facing criminal charges for a lunch-time prayer.

Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against Pace High School in Santa Rosa County, Florida. The ACLU claimed some teachers and administrators were endorsing religion, but the school chose to give in to the ACLU's demands rather than fight them in court.

According to the settlement, all school employees are banned from engaging in prayer or religious activities before, during, or after school hours. Now two school officials are facing criminal charges for offering meal-time prayers at an appreciation dinner for adults who had helped with a school field house project. Principal Frank Lay and athletic director Robert Freeman are scheduled to go on trial next month on criminal contempt charges. If convicted, both are subject to fines and imprisonment.

Matt Staver is founder of Liberty Counsel, which will argue the court order prohibiting prayer at school-related events violated Lay's and Freeman's constitutional rights.

"In this particular case, Principal Frank Lay asked the athletic director to have a prayer for the meal at an honorary luncheon in celebration for some of the athletic achievements. And then in [another] situation, the clerical worker at an event where some employees of the school were present asked her husband, who is not an employee of the school, to have a blessing over a meal," he explains. "Because of those two events, these individuals now face criminal contempt."

Staver believes that the accusers in this case are students who recently graduated. If that is the case, he says the case is moot. However, Staver adds it is outrageous to punish a school official with potential jail time for simply praying.

Why would the school have ever agreed to these draconian terms in the first place?

I suspect that this was intentional with the teachers forcing the issue before the courts since the school behaved in such a cowardly fashion.

“Progress is Providence without God. That is, it is a theory that everything has always perpetually gone right by accident. It is a sort of atheistic optimism, based on an everlasting coincidence far more miraculous than a miracle.”
G. K. Chesterton

It's only cheaper on the front end though. When out freedoms are stripped so that we are sufficiently outraged, we will stand and fight. Of course by then we are fighting a far greater battle for much higher stakes. Being moral cowards doesn't strike me as very cost effective.

It's only cheaper on the front end though. When out freedoms are stripped so that we are sufficiently outraged, we will stand and fight. Of course by then we are fighting a far greater battle for much higher stakes. Being moral cowards doesn't strike me as very cost effective.

You have to remember - they are not free to act as citizens are - and they have to pay for these law suits out of tax moneys and who wants to see their taxes go up? If there was a loser pay system - things would be different.